After explaining the situation to the people in the room, Rei immediately left.
He could have stayed a little longer, but the news he had just delivered was far from welcome to those who heard it. That was why he figured that if he remained, they might end up taking their frustration out on him.
Ilunara in particular had admired the Dolan Workshop since childhood. He had become an alchemist to fulfill that dream, and his dream had come true when he was accepted into the Workshop. To tell someone like that the Dolan Workshop would likely collapse—there was no question he had strong feelings about it.
Ilunara understood that Rei wasn't to blame. He even understood that Egginis had been saved thanks to Rei. And yet, if Rei were right in front of him, there was a high chance he would lash out.
If even the level-headed Ilunara might react that way, it wouldn't be strange for the others to vent their frustrations either. Rei would have preferred to avoid that, but he couldn't say with certainty that it wouldn't happen.
That was why he was now casually walking around the Fusetsu hideout.
Naturally, he wasn't alone—a guide was with him. However, it wasn't the person who had guided him underground earlier, but someone entirely different.
"Rei-san, where are you going? There aren't that many places I can show you, you know?" the female guide said to him.
From her perspective, she probably figured it would be better to guide him rather than let Rei wander around the Fusetsu hideout as he pleased. If possible, she wanted him to wait in the room. It was understandable she'd feel that way.
"When you ask where, I don't really have a specific destination. I don't have any particular purpose, so I'm just looking around. But... standing around like this with nothing to do seems a bit pointless. Is there a library or something like that?"
"There is, but you need permission from above to use it. There are some quite rare books there, after all."
"I see," Rei murmured, sounding slightly disappointed.
He needed to do something to kill time, and he had hoped to read in the library to pass it. There was also simple curiosity about what kind of books Fusetsu kept. Either way, there was no denying he was bored right now.
(In that case, should I read the Monster Encyclopedia I have with me?)
He considered it, but he had already read his Monster Encyclopedia many times over and had practically memorized its contents. Reading it again in this situation would do nothing to relieve the boredom.
(Should I just go help with the city's reconstruction instead?)
For a moment, that seemed like a good idea. Using his Misty Ring, he could easily clear away rubble. But considering the commotion that would erupt when people discovered he was the one who had defeated the Necro Golem, he felt that showing up to help with debris removal would only stir up a bigger uproar and end up causing trouble for the people already clearing it.
As he wondered what to do, he suddenly sensed a presence approaching their direction.
Who was it? He wondered if—just possibly—it might be a survivor of those who had attacked before. But the person who arrived showed no particular alarm upon seeing Rei and the female guide.
"Rei-san, I finally found you. Actually, there's someone above who says they want to see you. What should we do?"
Under normal circumstances—if, for instance, someone had come asking to see Ilunara or Anne—Fusetsu would either refuse them outright or have Ilunara or Anne identify the person to confirm whether it was an acquaintance. But when the person in question was Rei, things were different.
Rei was technically using this hideout, but that was largely because he was accompanying Anne's group. In reality, if Rei were serious about it, he could effortlessly annihilate Fusetsu. That was why, if someone had come to see him, it was necessary to let Rei decide whether or not to meet them.
"For me? Who exactly?"
"They said they came from the Jalis Workshop."
"...The Jalis Workshop? Then Roger?"
The only alchemist at the Jalis Workshop that Rei had any connection with was Roger. If that was the case, then it was undoubtedly Roger who had come to visit—but that raised the question of what on earth he had come for.
(Or rather... did they actually suffer some kind of damage from the Necro Golem incident? Something like that?)
It wouldn't have been strange for Rei to harbor such suspicions. That said, even if that were the case, there was still the question of why come here.
He thought about what he should do, but ultimately decided he needed to meet the person and judge for himself.
"I see. Then I'll go take a look. I'm curious about what they came here for."
Coming from the Jalis Workshop, it was probably Roger. He thought so, but in the current situation, there was also the question of what on earth they had come all the way here for. Or perhaps the Jalis Workshop had suffered damage from the Necro Golem incident, and they had come to ask for his help with restoration. At any rate, he wouldn't understand the circumstances without actually talking to them, so he judged that he needed to meet them first.
If this had been a complete stranger with no connection to the Jalis Workshop or anything else, Rei probably wouldn't have gone out of his way to meet them...
(No, well, I was definitely bored, so maybe I would have met them anyway.)
Given the current situation, there wasn't anything in particular he needed to do, so even if a complete stranger had come to see him, he couldn't deny the possibility that he would have met them. Killing time was a significant factor for Rei.
...However, even if it was just killing time for Rei, the person who had actually come to see him had undoubtedly come bearing some kind of desperate sentiment. In that sense, the person—probably Roger—was perhaps lucky. That word might be fitting.
At any rate, Rei followed the person who had brought the report through the underground... and emerged onto the surface.
Waiting there was, as expected, not Roger... but a different person. However, though it wasn't Roger, it wasn't a complete stranger to Rei either. It was one of the individuals serving as Roger's guards. In other words, one of the people who had provoked Seto and been driven back when Rei first encountered Roger.
(Come to think of it, this guy is also classified as an adventurer, isn't he? And yet he didn't participate in the recent turmoil. Well, he's exclusive to the Jalis Workshop... or rather, exclusively Roger's, so I suppose that's natural.)
If that was the case, then perhaps adventurers employed as exclusives at other workshops hadn't participated in the recent turmoil either. With that thought, Rei opened his mouth.
"You're one of Roger's guards, right? What are you doing all the way out here?"
Among Roger's guards, there were some well-versed in the underworld. In that sense, Rei's current presence at the Fusetsu hideout was also connected to the flow of information from such sources. That said, the man standing before Rei now was not someone knowledgeable about the underworld.
"Ah, Rei-san. Um, yes. Actually, there's a bit of a problem on Roger's end..."
"A problem?"
Hearing there was a problem, the first thing Rei thought of was naturally that the Jalis Workshop had suffered damage in the Necro Golem incident, and Roger might have been injured as a result. But the adventurer in front of Rei didn't appear to have any particularly grave expression. Since he was employed as Roger's guard, if something had happened to Roger and he had come to fetch Rei, it wouldn't be strange for him to look grim.
"Just to confirm, this isn't about Roger getting injured in the Necro Golem turmoil or anything like that, right?"
"Eh? Ah, yes. No problem on that front. The Jalis Workshop didn't suffer any significant damage to begin with."
Hearing those words, Rei felt relieved. The Necro Golem hadn't passed directly by the Jalis Workshop. But considering that even the Slum District had suffered damage from the purple Breath the Necro Golem had unleashed, it wouldn't have been strange to wonder if the Jalis Workshop had been affected too. Rei's concerns were clearly dispelled by the adventurer man's words.
"Then what happened? Given the current situation in Egginis, I can't really imagine any commotion occurring other than the Necro Golem incident."
"Um, actually, it's about the golem that Roger is developing..."
Told it was about the golem Roger was developing, Rei felt anxious again. There were currently two golems he had commissioned Roger to develop. One of them was a cleaning golem that picked up trash—the kind you could ordinarily see just walking through the streets of Egginis.
Of course, even those golems had undoubtedly suffered considerable damage in the Necro Golem incident. One of the reasons the Necro Golem had gradually grown larger was probably because such cleaning golems had been absorbed into it. That said, cleaning golems were fundamentally not very large, so even if they had been absorbed, they likely wouldn't have contributed much to its growth.
At any rate, what Rei had asked Roger to create was a cleaning golem—a commonplace sight in Egginis—and a defensive golem.
There was no question Rei possessed outstanding ability as an adventurer, but that didn't mean he could do everything. Among his weaknesses, escort duty stood out in particular.
If an enemy was targeting Rei, he had any number of ways to deal with them. Even if someone tried to target his partner Seto, it wouldn't be difficult for Seto to handle. But when it came to escorting someone, the story was different.
While protecting the escort target, Rei's mobility became restricted. The escort target might also panic upon being attacked and flee from his side—such a thing wasn't impossible. At times like that, having a Tank golem to protect the escort target would undoubtedly make things easier for him. That was why he had asked Roger to build a defensive golem.
There must have been a problem with one of those two, and the man before him had come because of it.
(Thinking about it normally, it'd be the defensive golem... but the cleaning golem wasn't a standard model either. He was building a special version. In that case, which one?)
Harboring some doubt, Rei asked the man.
"I believe I asked Roger to make two types of golems. Which one is it about?"
"Ah, the cleaning golem."
"...Is that so."
What came from the man's mouth was unexpected. He had commissioned two types, but if there was a problem, he had assumed it would be the defensive golem. Yet what was mentioned here was the cleaning golem. It was only natural for Rei to wonder what had happened.
"What's the problem with the cleaning golem?"
"Yes. Actually, Roger was asking whether it would be all right to use the cleaning golem for rubble removal."
"...Haa."
Having assumed there was some more pressing reason, those words were quite unexpected to Rei.
"Just to confirm, does he need my permission for that?"
"Of course. The cleaning golem Roger is building is being created as a commission from you, Rei-san. He can't just go and use it on his own."
Despite that, Rei felt like the Dolan Workshop had been using golems quite freely. He wanted to point that out, but he figured the Dolan Workshop was the one in the wrong on that matter.
"Besides, the cleaning golem apparently uses materials from a monster called an Orc Naga, and various new technologies have been applied to it, so that's all the more reason to be careful."
"That... I see."
The Orc Naga was an unknown monster that inhabited the Forest of Magic, which Rei had given to Roger. If it used materials from that creature, Rei could understand why Roger would be cautious... and eventually, he nodded.